Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 2, No. 3 | Does A Downturn in Civic Education Signal a Disconnect to Democracy? (low bandwidth)

Young people today are less informed about civic matters than youngsters were a generation or two ago. Students attending high school now often take only one government course, compared to a range of courses in civics, democracy and government that were available in the 1960s and earlier. The profile of civics and social studies education in elementary school students is also dismal: during the decade beginning with 1988, there was a reported decline of 49 percent of fourth graders who had a social studies lesson each day.

A multitude of factors have led to this decline, including emphasis on high-stakes testing, cut-backs that affect extra-curricular programs in which students can learn civic skills and teachers’ concerns that discussing controversial subjects may result in negative reviews or even legal action.

In view of the sharp downturn in civics education, it is perhaps not surprising that young adults are becoming increasingly disconnected from civic and political institutions. One manifestation of this disconnection is that only about 13 percent of eligible young people cast ballots in the last presidential election. A recent National Youth Survey conducted by CIRCLE revealed that only half of the 1,500 young people polled believe that voting is important, and only 46 percent think they can make a difference in solving community problems.

The lack of interest in politics is especially alarming since there are 43 million people under the age of 30 who are eligible to vote, a full one-quarter of the electorate. A clue as to why these voters are turned off may be found in a recent nonscientific Youth Challenge Quiz conducted online (http://www.carnegie.org/sub/pubs/youthsurvey.html) by Carnegie Corporation. Young people ages 15-24 were invited to participate in the quiz. One of the questions asked, “Why don’t more young people vote or get involved in politics?” Of the nearly 2,000 respondents, the main answer was that they did not have enough information about issues and candidates. Other sources, such as the Center for Voting and Democracy (www.fairvote.org), report data indicating that young people say they’d be more inclined to participate in the U.S. electoral system if more candidates addressed issues of concern to younger citizens.

There are, however, signs that recent world events may be prompting young people to grapple with problems in our democracy. Data from UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute shows that the 2000 presidential election and events of September 11th, 2001, have reignited youths’ interest in politics: 32.9 percent of college freshman surveyed said that keeping up with politics was either a very important or essential life goal, a jump up from 28.1 percent in 2000.